One thing went right about Rebecca Stone's move from Austin, Texas, to St. Petersburg: Her furniture got here.
But when it did, she said:
• It was late.
• The movers would not unload until she paid almost $700 above the $5,300 estimate.
• After she paid, they left some of her stuff outside, where it got rained on. They refused to put furniture in specific rooms. Instead, they stacked some in the living room, with sofas and boxes left on their sides.
• Her washer and dryer were broken. Champagne flutes were missing. An antique dining room credenza was chipped.
"This was just the move from Hades," Stone said. "It was really bizarre."
Stone learned the hard way what happens when customers randomly pick movers off the Internet without fully vetting them.
Only after she arrived here did she learn that American Eagle Movers had ferried her goods here illegally. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration had revoked the company's interstate moving authority because it lacked insurance. (The Pompano-based company is authorized to operate only within the state of Florida.)
A moving company that transports a customer's home goods across state lines without federal authority is subject to a $25,000 fine per violation.
A St. Petersburg Times review of the mover's records with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration show American Eagle had its insurance canceled at least 12 times since 2005. The latest time was in April, which prompted federal authorities in May to revoke the mover's interstate authority.
American Eagle has also been the subject of 47 complaints to the Better Business Bureau during the past 36 months, mostly regarding advertising, sales and service.
"We have had issues with this company," said John Bisney, a spokesman for the American Moving and Storage Association. It canceled American Eagle Movers' membership when the company lost its interstate moving authority.
"What we find is people will go on the Internet and shop for price as though they are buying up a piece of furniture," Bisney said.
• • •
Robert Buck of American Eagle Movers said there is another side to the story.
His company did have insurance, he said, but federal authorities simply had not been informed of that.
"We always had insurance and never (were) without it, but it is a paperwork problem that unfortunately we were caught in the middle of and it will soon be remedied with another company," Buck said in an e-mail response to the Times.
As for the problems with Stone's move, Buck said the price was based on a "binding inventory list of items."
"The customer wanted everything loaded including the items not originally listed on the inventory list, and she was given the adjusted price and the shipment was loaded and (Stone) was unhappy," Buck said.
• • •
Stone found American Eagle Movers on the Internet and exchanged two dozen e-mails about the move. There was, in fact, an inventory list and an estimate based on the list.
That's a practice the movers' association says consumers should avoid. Estimates should be based on a mover visiting a customer's home. The estimate given should be binding, Bisney said.
The trouble with price served only to infuriate Stone, leading to disputes with the movers as they arrived at her three-bedroom, 21/2-bath home in the Tyrone area.
Instead of placing the furniture in designated rooms, the movers unloaded much of it in Stone's new living room. Some of it was left in the detached garage and other pieces outside on the lawn.
"There was like black mold fuzz," Stone said of some of the damp furniture. "They set up nothing. The guy just looked at me and said, 'You're not telling me anything, lady.' "
"I couldn't move the furniture myself," she said. "I had to hire someone else to move the furniture into the right rooms."
Bisney said companies like American Eagle Movers are not common in the industry. Of about 1,000 companies certified in the association as professional interstate movers, just 40 had deficiencies during recent reviews and only six had problems that were not easily remedied.
"We review all our pro movers every year," Bisney said. "Most resolved any issues quickly … (American Eagle Movers is) definitely a canceled member."
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